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The what are you reading at the moment fred


Mr Romanov Saviour of HMFC

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I've read the girl with all the gifts, might give the other one ago.

I'm a big fan of crime books but I've been reading a lot of post apocalyptic stuff and fantasy I suppose.

I'm reading Endgame, James Frey, just now.

Dystopia has become a genre in its own right, I think. If you haven't read it, I'd commend Patrick Ness's 'Chaos Walking' trilogy. It's young adult fiction (like The Hunger Games) and it is superb. I read all three in the space of a week. Ness also wrote 'A Monster Calls' which is at the cinemas at the moment.
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Just started the second book in Brian Lumleys Necroscope. Loved the first 1 of the series.

Now that's a blast from the past! Prett sure I read them years ago. Weird agencies with a chunk of Lovecraft thrown in if I remember rightly?

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Dystopia has become a genre in its own right, I think. If you haven't read it, I'd commend Patrick Ness's 'Chaos Walking' trilogy. It's young adult fiction (like The Hunger Games) and it is superb. I read all three in the space of a week. Ness also wrote 'A Monster Calls' which is at the cinemas at the moment.

Thanks Haken, dystopia is probably the right term, it wouldn't come when I was doing my last post. Will definitely check your recommendation out. I've also just read the wool trilogy and and I'm in the middle of the dominion trilogy and really enjoyed them.

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Stephane Grappelli

I couldn't get into it. Liked C&P, though

 

faemafone

 

Aye, I loved Crime and Punishment.  Actually felt like I was going mad with Raskolnikov.

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Just started the second book in Brian Lumleys Necroscope. Loved the first 1 of the series.

Forgot to say, I just finished a book by an author I hadn't heard of before, Joe Hill. It was called the fireman. A couldn't put the kindle down type of read.
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Over the past couple of months I have read:

 

A Legend Of Montrose - Sir Walter Scott

Rob Roy - Sir Walter Scott

The Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson

Catriona - Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Sea Fogs - Robert Louis Stevenson

The Silverado Squatters - Robert Louis Stevenson

New Arabian Nights - Robert Louis Stevenson

 

The Scott novels are a bit heavy going (but once you get used to his style of writing it eases off a little) so the RLS ones were read in between to lighten the load a little. All excellent and thoroughly recommended.

 

If you are going to try a Scott novel for the first time I would recommend trying one you already know the story of. The first one I read, about ten years ago now, was Ivanhoe and even though I knew the story it took me until about halfway through the book before I was comfortable reading it. 

 

After typing all that nonsense I'm off to watch Bobby & Liz doing the do back in '52:

 

Edited by Sraman
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Forgot to say, I just finished a book by an author I hadn't heard of before, Joe Hill. It was called the fireman. A couldn't put the kindle down type of read.

Joe Hill is Stephen King's son
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Joe Hill is Stephen King's son

Yep. I've read a couple recently, posted above. NOS4R2 and Horns. Both were superb. I'd actually go so far to say that Hill is better than his old man.

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Currently thoroughly enjoying James Patterson's trilogy featuring Detective Alex Cross. He really knows how to tell a story.

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Finished Stalkers - decent enough and will probably read more n this series.

 

Now onto a bit of sci fi dystopia - Ready Player One.

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Stephane Grappelli

The Brothers Karamazov by the late, great Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky.

 

Still reading this.  It's nearly a thousand pages though so is going to take me a while.  Dunno why you keep asking to be honest.

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Got a tablet now so re reading all Patricia Highsmith crime novels. She was a terrific pyschological thriller writer. Most know one of her most famous novels  " strangers on a train" but she also wrote the Tom Ripley books too which are about a sociopath con man. They are excellent too. I just cant seem to find any decent modern day writers as good as her., now that PD James and Ruth Rendell have died. I tried " the girl on the train" and it was completely overated.  Any decent recommendations ????

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johnny marr

Enjoyable read.

Thought the Smiths break up though he could have went into more detail.

He was the main man though in the group.Never realised how hands on he was.

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Finished Ready Player One.  It was alright, if a bit bloated by unnecessary detail.

 

Now onto American Gods by Neil Gaiman. 

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Currently thoroughly enjoying James Patterson's trilogy featuring Detective Alex Cross. He really knows how to tell a story.

There are several books in the Alex Cross series, more than 20 I think. So if you really like them you've got quite a bit of reading to catch up on.

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I'm now reading the final installment of the divergent trilogy, Allegiant. There is something I really enjoy about these post apocalyptic type novels I enjoy.

Got some more Joe Hill downloaded for when this is finished.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished American Gods.  I think I've concluded that I find Neil Gaiman a bit dull.

 

Onto Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb.

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Been trying to get back into reading lately, been reading 'The Real Madrid Way' quite interesting, although it is littered with Americanisms. Can see some cross over with the membership scheme real run and the FOH to some extent.

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Adrian Goldsworthy - From Revolutionary to Emperor. A biography of Augustus. Cracking read. Sounds dry but is anything but.

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Just finished reading The Econocracy: The Perils of Leaving Economics to the Experts, by Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins (Manchester University Press, 2016).

 

The book has a core theme and message, and because of that one or two chapters have repetitive elements in them.  Nonetheless it is a well-written, jargon-free and thought-provoking book that makes a strong case that modern Economics and economists have removed political accountability and democratic control from the decision-making processes of governments. The book also sets out a very solid argument for why this has happened, and the kind of things that need to be done to reverse the process.

 

The authors are involved with the Rethinking Economics movement.  Rethinking Economics is an international network of students, academics and others with an interest in Economics who are trying to develop better and broader ways of teaching Economics to students and of explaining the subject to the general public.

 

Even if you disagree with the core point of the book, IMO it's worth reading if you have an interest in modern politics and government. 

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Still reading this. It's nearly a thousand pages though so is going to take me a while. Dunno why you keep asking to be honest.

Got that for reading next. Look forward to a review.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished Fool's Assassin.  This is the third trilogy featuring these characters.  The first two were decent.  This first book in the third was a bit of a challenge.  I think I finished it as an act of loyalty.

 

Now reading Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay.  Promising stuff so far.

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Finished Fool's Assassin. This is the third trilogy featuring these characters. The first two were decent. This first book in the third was a bit of a challenge. I think I finished it as an act of loyalty.

 

Now reading Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay. Promising stuff so far.

I enjoyed fools assassin. Just waiting on the fools fate, the final instalment of the trilogy, due out in May this year.

I just work George Martin could write as quick as robin Hobbs.

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I enjoyed fools assassin. Just waiting on the fools fate, the final instalment of the trilogy, due out in May this year.

I just work George Martin could write as quick as robin Hobbs.

I've got the second one and will read it later this year. Just felt FA was 600 pages of set up for the main story

 

Agree really GRRM

 

faemafone

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Finished Disappearance at Debil's Rock. Really good stuff if you like your horror more suggestive than gory.

 

Now reading Perfect Remains by Helen Fields. Crime thriller set in Edinburgh and featuring a French cop who has transferred from Interpol to Polis Scotland.

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Perfect Remains turned out to be pretty good, so far as crime thrillers go.  Set in Edinburgh, but different enough in style from Rebus and Skinner to set it apart from those two gadges.

 

Now reading I Am No One, which appears to be setting out to say something profound about surveillance in the modern world.  Only a few pages in.

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Riddley Walker

Finished American Gods.  I think I've concluded that I find Neil Gaiman a bit dull.

 

Onto Fool's Assassin by Robin Hobb.

I agree with you on American Gods. I read it years ago and was very disappointed, as the idea was great.

 

Recently finished On Beauty by Zadie Smith and Stoner by John Williams. Both outstanding in their own ways, and very different, although they both left me with the same empty feeling. How Zadie Smith brings so much life and truth into her characters is beyond me.

 

Just started Warlock by Oakley Hall, apparently a classic, slightly different take on a Western. Time will tell.

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Riddley Walker

Got a tablet now so re reading all Patricia Highsmith crime novels. She was a terrific pyschological thriller writer. Most know one of her most famous novels  " strangers on a train" but she also wrote the Tom Ripley books too which are about a sociopath con man. They are excellent too. I just cant seem to find any decent modern day writers as good as her., now that PD James and Ruth Rendell have died. I tried " the girl on the train" and it was completely overated.  Any decent recommendations ????

You looking for any particular genre or are you fairly open?

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I enjoyed fools assassin. Just waiting on the fools fate, the final instalment of the trilogy, due out in May this year.

I just work George Martin could write as quick as robin Hobbs.

I just got an email from the goodreads site. The final book from the trilogy is due out on 4th May and is called the assassins fate. If you're a member on goodreads, you can be entered into a draw to get the hardback a week early. If it was the kindle version I would go for it.
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Finished I Am No One and it turned out to be a pile of shite. 

 

So, in more familiarly safe territory, am now reading Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thought Doctor Sleep was very good, one of King's better offerings of late.

 

Now onto some crime thriller nonsense called Strangers by Paul Finch.

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superjack

Just started the final instalment from the fitz and the go trilogy the assassins fate by robin Hobbs.

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Currently reading No Country For Old Men

 

The use of "should of" and lack of apostrophes is grinding my gears a bit.

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Riddley Walker

Currently reading No Country For Old Men

 

The use of "should of" and lack of apostrophes is grinding my gears a bit.

 

McCarthy is not a fan of apostrophes or many other standard pieces of punctuation.

 

And I suppose the "should ofs" in the book are due to colloquialisms?

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King Of The Cat Cafe

Currently well through a book called "1000 Years of Annoying the French".

 

It is an irreverent look at the shared history of England (initially) and Britain (latterly) with France.

 

It basically pokes fun at everything the French have ever done and what a bunch of tossers they have been since 1066.

 

If you ever thought the Murphy that Murphy's Law is named after was Irish: not so, he was French. Anything that France could have cocked up, they did.

 

(I accept that the book may contain a lot of anti-French pickiness.)

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McCarthy is not a fan of apostrophes or many other standard pieces of punctuation.

 

And I suppose the "should ofs" in the book are due to colloquialisms?

Perhaps, but combined with the lack of standard punctuation it just makes it seem like the author has poor grammar.

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Riddley Walker

Perhaps, but combined with the lack of standard punctuation it just makes it seem like the author has poor grammar.

Have a read up on him, he does things in his own way. He's on record as saying something like apostrophes are a "mess on the page" or something similar. I think he's one of the best authors of all time, a true genius. Definitely my favourite.

 

No Country for Old Men is one of his weaker novels IMO, check out the Border Trilogy books or Blood Meridian if you haven't already.

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I'm enjoying the story, just not the grammar. Not using apostrophes because they are a mess is just bullshit. :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished Strangers - it was okay, if a trifle far-fetched. 

 

Now reading Sleeping Giants which is about a big statue made up of bits scattered across the world.  It was probably built by aliens.  Interesting style in that the story is told through a number of files, transcripts, interviews, etc (a bit like Dracula).  That makes for a fairly fast-paced narrative.  After two days, I'm about two-thirds through it.  It's been very decent so far.

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Still reading this. It's nearly a thousand pages though so is going to take me a while. Dunno why you keep asking to be honest.

How you getting on with it? I'm about 260 pages in after two weeks (I only read on my commute)

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Finished Sleeping Giants.  Superb book.  Most of it's told through dialogue-driven interview transcripts, and yet it still manages to be a page turner and is packed with dry humour.  Didn't see the surprise ending in the epilogue coming, either, which sets things up nicely for the second book, Waking Gods (which I'll get when it comes out in paperback, because I'm stingy).

 

Just going to start South, a post-apocalyptic story set in the USA where chemical warfare appears to have taken its toll.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished South.  A bit of a poor son whose parents were The Stand and The Road. 

 

Have just started Six Four by Hideo Yokoyama.  As the author's name suggests, it's Japanese - a crime thriller about the handling of a missing persons investigation.

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